Once a year, Becker Library’s Archives and Rare Books Division brings out the “greatest hits” of the rare book collection for the Annual Display of Rare Anatomical Texts. The display is an opportunity to see these spectacular works up close. Below is a self-guided tour to help provide a deeper appreciation for select items that [Read more]
In 1999, Dr. Cynthia Wichelman, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, launched the Mini-Medical School with the goal of educating the community by sharing the expertise of the medical faculty. Over the past 20 years, it has become so popular that it has expanded to include three different series [Read more]
Back in the days before the Internet, how did authors obtain copies of journal articles if they did not hold a subscription to the journal? One common way to request a copy of an article was to send the corresponding author of the article a postcard or a letter requesting a reprint of the article. [Read more]
The following is a guest post from Stanley Finger, professor emeritus in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University. Finger earned his doctorate from Indiana University and has been on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis since that time. He is also currently affiliated with the school’s History of Medicine [Read more]
The Becker Archives holds a letter written by President Thomas Jefferson. This handwritten letter concerning Jefferson’s spectacles was given to Dr. Eugene Opie, dean of Washington University School of Medicine, in 1915. The letter was generously donated by William K. Bixby, was a frequent benefactor and long-time supporter of Washington University. Jefferson’s letter, dated Dec. [Read more]
Bernard Becker Medical Library is fortunate to have robust collections in archives and rare books that document the history of medicine from the late 15th century up to the present. Subjects in which the library’s holdings are particularly strong include ophthalmology and optics, neurology, deaf education, and the history of dentistry. In order to encourage [Read more]
Fifty years ago today the Stonewall uprising began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. In the 1960s, as in preceding decades, police commonly raided bars that catered to gay and lesbian clientele on the pretext of liquor license violations. This was the case at Stonewall [Read more]
A new exhibit titled “That Was Then: An Architectural History of the Washington University Medical Center” is on display through Aug. 16 on the seventh floor of Bernard Becker Medical Library. Through a series of before-and-after photographs, the exhibit shows how the medical campus has changed over the past 100 years. One building in particular [Read more]
The weather is finally starting to warm up as we move into summer, which means it’s also time to switch from winter to summer clothes. This probably means cotton and short sleeves instead of wool and sweaters, but one item that will almost certainly not appear in anyone’s wardrobe, regardless of the season, is the [Read more]
Martin Kamen is not a household name today, but his synthesis of Carbon 14 in February 1940 was the first of many achievements in his long career as a chemist. In 1944, Kamen, a chemist in the new field of radiochemistry, worked for the Manhattan Project at Berkeley Radiation Laberatory and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The [Read more]